I know what you’re thinking– no one likes nuts in their chocolate chip cookies! Why ruin a good thing? Well… listen up. Because I am about to share what is essentially the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe with you. And those nuts in the recipe won’t even be noticeable. Promise!
These cookies are absent butter, eggs and flour. The base of the cookies are ground-up walnuts and make them out-of-this-world amazing.
So, let’s chat about walnuts for a second. Did you know that about 99% of all walnuts produced in the United States are grown in California? Walnuts were first produced by Franciscan fathers and were known as “mission walnuts” in the 1700’s. The first Californian walnuts grown for commercial purposes were planted in the 1860’s in southern California. Production quickly spread north to the Central Valley, where California’s prime walnut producing region is today. Walnuts are now harvested on more than 225,000 acres and is expanding every year.
So, there you have it. You now know more about walnuts than you ever wanted. And now you need to know how good these walnut chocolate chip cookies are. So get baking!
In true California fashion, this recipe was concocted for all you health-nuts (pun intended) out there, vegan, vegetarian, organic… whatever other diet you’ve committed yourself to. Me? I’m not any of those things but these cookies are still my all-time fav, despite the “healthy” ingredients!
Back to these cookies… They are absent butter, eggs and flour. Ground up walnuts are the base for these cookies and make them out of this world amazing. In fact, I originally came across the recipe here a few years ago. I discovered them on a massive search trying to find “heart healthy” recipes to make for my father-in-law, who had just undergone quintuple bypass surgery on his heart. Since then I’ve made them countless times and fine-tuned the recipe more to my liking. That’s what you’ll find below. Careful though! They are addicting. You’ve been warned. Proceed.
Ingredients
- 3 tbs. canola oil
- 2 cups walnuts
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups oat flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 1 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate (or 1 1/2 cups vegan chocolate chips), 12 oz.
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Blend walnuts in food processor 30 seconds, or until ground into a fine meal. Add canola oil, and blend 2 to 3 minutes more, or until mixture has the consistency of natural peanut butter, scraping down sides of food processor occasionally. Transfer to bowl.
3. Whisk together brown sugar and 2/3 cup water in small saucepan, and bring mixture to a boil. Pour brown sugar mixture over ground walnut butter, add vanilla extract, and stir until no lumps remain.
4. Whisk together oat flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in separate bowl. Stir oat flour mixture into walnut mixture. Cool 20 minutes (DO NOT skip this cooling step, or your chocolate chips will melt into the mixture). Fold in oats, followed by chocolate chips.
5. Shape cookie dough into 2-inch balls, and place 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Flatten cookies slightly with bottom of drinking glass dipped into water (so the dough doesn’t stick to the glass). Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until cookies begin to brown and tops look dry. Cool 3 minutes on baking sheets, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
Author: Andrea
Former news reporter and Capitol Hill press guru, wife, mom, and pastry addict.
No way! That sounds intriguing and looks delicious. Pinning! Can’t wait to try them. 🙂
Do you grind up the oats to make oat flour or pour them whole?
Connie, good question! You use oats in two different steps of the recipe. First use one and a half cups of oat flour (the ground up oats). And in the last step you add 2 cups of additional oats (not ground up). Does that help?